“A motion graphics artist is unique and differs from a traditional animator in that your challenge is to combine video, animation, visual effects and graphic design elements like typography and iconography to produce, among other things, title sequences for film, TV and gaming, interstitials, idents, station stings.”

Motion designers are essentially an amalgam of graphic designer and animator, primarily combining an ability to construct and balance visual elements in a moving format with the technical knowledge of an animator. On a conceptual level, a deep interest in and understanding of cinematic vocabulary, cinematography, soundtracks and a keen awareness of the fundamentals of good design, as defined in Graphic Design: The New Basics, that is, typography – “to break down the distinction between words and visual forms” (Chermayeff and Geismar, 2006), point, line and plane, rhythm and balance, scale, texture, colour, framing, hierarchy and using grids for composition (Lupton and Phillips, 2009). It goes without saying that knowing when to break these rules is as important as being familiar with them. The ability to visualise and translate data is also advantageous. It is your task to “examine, compare, relate, abstract, and deduce visual ideas” (Koren and Meckler, 2001).